Margin London has been kindly invited to contribute to HideYourArms. We’ll be posting some news about up-and-coming labels that will be exhibiting at Margin in February 2013, which takes place on the 10th & 11th, but firstly we think we should introduce ourselves.

Started back in 2002 as an affordable platform for new designers, Margin is the longest-running independent trade exhibition in London. The show presents designer women’s and men’s tailoring and accessories, as well as streetwear for men and women, to invited store buyers and press.

The humble tee has long been a starting point for numerous labels, and we’ve seen many an exhibitor start off with a t-shirt offering which has grown over the seasons to include a full range of clothing. Supremebeing, Lazy Oaf, Seventyseven, Dephect, YourEyesLie, and many others all started at Margin with tees before growing their stockist base and extending their range to include clothing, bags, jewellery (or jewelry for Americans!), and hats.

Margin has been providing a launchpad for brands to meet with key buyers and press for 10 years to date, and 2012 marked a decade of exhibitions.

To commemorate the occasion, a limited-edition 10 year book was printed for visitors to the show, but it’s also available to download as a PDF or as a super-interactive book for iPad. The iPad version features extensive galleries of previous seasons, as well as videos, and can be downloaded here.

Here’s the link to posts where HideYourArms mentions Margin including brand updates from when they last visited (well overdue for a revisit but Andy & the HideYourArms London correspondent are returning in February 2013!).

Margin is an intimate showroom exhibition in a white gallery space in the heart of Central London, and the only tradeshow in the UK where buyers and press can discover new & emerging design talent (most making their debut launch). When we say “NEW”, we don’t just mean new to Margin, we mean brand-spanking, never-been-seen-before, new!

Margin has welcomed key stores to the exhibitions since first launching in 2002; from online players like ASOS, My-Wardrobe, and Urban Industry; multiples such as Ark, Joy, Beams, and Ships; department stores, such as Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Liberty, House of Fraser, Psyche, Fenwick, El Corte Ingles, Galleries Lafayette, & Engelhorn Trendhaus; as well as the key independents Margin is renowned for, including Colette, Hip, Sakis, Wood, Royal Cheese, Natterjacks, 290sqm, Coggles, Market, Atoo, My Yard, Donuts, Caliroots, and Get Cutie, to name a few.

Dualta from Irish brand Project A Apparel got in touch to let me know that their latest collection (which, as those images attest, is a pretty big release) is up for pre-order now ahead of the full drop on November 10th.

Dublin-based streetwear label Project A Apparel showcases its Autumn/Winter 2012 collection “Departures and Arrivals”. Continuing a tradition of themed drops, this collection crosses classic travel imagery with horror graphics. The new pieces feature Project A’s first forays into outerwear with a flecktarn camouflage jacket, and “deadliest catch” style coach windbreaker. The rest of the collection features tees, zip ups, crews and hats.

I’m impressed, it’s great to see how much this brand has developed from the first time I head from them years ago, seeing that kind of progression is one of the nice things about HYA being around for as long as it has.

I’m pretty sure the last time I wrote about a track jacket the Game Boy had just been released and people had not yet enjoyed the wonders of cheese in the crust of a pizza, so it’s pretty fitting that I’m posting a track jacket from Urban Retro with a distinctly retro flair to it. It certainly is a clean looking design, there’s not really much to it, which means that there isn’t exactly a lot there to complain about, but perhaps that means you guys might not find it interesting enough?

I think that the irony police might be on the lookout for the Disturbia crew after they’ve released these designs (which you can buy, by the way), about excessive spending. I really like the ‘Keep Buying and Stay Silent’ tee, which is another clever riff on the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ poster that you see so many variations of nowadays, and the biker-style track jacket looks pretty badass (the wraparound bit in the neck is a nice touch, but the Mastercard parody isn’t really working for me I’m afraid, it just reminds me of ‘funny’ tees you’d see in a souvenir shop on holiday, though it’s safe to presume that Disturbia’s take is produced to a much higher quality, so don’t let me hold you back from spending, spending, spending!

I’ve never really been all that into Halloween, but apparently its gaining in popularity back home, and the French seem to be big fans of putting decorations up, though I haven’t seen a single carved pumpkin yet (possibly because the fruit & veg here starts rotting after a day or so).

Friends of the mustache can rejoice, because Fuzzy Ink have put all the tees from their first series on sale at just $9.95 a pop. They’ve also released some very cool looking belts, and a track jacket with their name on it.

Have no fear, I’ll get back to posting about stuff that is printed by some dude in a poorly-ventilated garage, but sometimes I’ve just gotta post this stuff.

Natterjacks are selling two very limited edition Adidas tracksuits, the first is a black and red leather (yes, a leather tracksuit) number based upon the 80s original, which would be perfect for completing your Run DMC cosplay outfit if you’re happy to hand over Â£550 ($1010) for it. Up next, a track jacket that actually has stainless steel woven into the thread, which is fairly clever, but rather pointless and gaudy. In their product description Natterjacks say they they only have a couple of these so they’ll go quick, but I get the feeling that they might be hanging around for a while with a Â£400 pricetag, unless I have seriously underestimated the amount of disposable income that rappers in the UK have going spare for bling.

Since I wouldn’t want you to come away from this post thinking “that was fun, but why not point I out something I should buy Andy, you handsome devil?” I’ve found (ok, that’s a lie, I got sent an e-mail about them, blogging is so easy sometimes!) 3 tees from the Adidas Originals range that are about as retro as their track suits cousins, but you might actually want to wear them. All three are available from Urban Industry for Â£24.50, which is probably a bit pricey for our buddies in the States, but actually pretty good going for a UK shop.

Are you all ready for some more Wrongwroks news? Or at the very least enjoy a bit of Nat-licious eye candy?It would seem that I’m not the only one smitten with the model, since she’s popped up on a few designs recently, the latest of which is a collaboration with a Singaporean store called Super Clique. You can also now get the embroidered Dorabob character on a red American Apparel track jacket with white raglan piping (which is a sweet colourway), and they’ve taken the WcDonald trucker hat (basically, the McDs logo upside down) super-stealthy by offering it in a black-on-black combo. As usual, this is probably all limited edition, so if you want it, go and get it… now.

I don’t really know what you guys think of a t-shirt with a photo of a girl in her bra, but I kind a like it, although I’m sure it would receive a few less-than-complimentary stares if I wore it to go shopping, and a few unwanted stares from drunk guys on a night out.

More pictures after the break (I haven’t done a ‘more’ for months, have I?)

I got an extremely enthusiastic e-mail from Mare Rosemayer, one half of the duo behind Effin Effigy, and her energy was enough to refocus my attention on blogging, just as I was tempted to leave the desk and go get some shortbread. Offtopic, but if shortbread is, well, short bread, is there such a thing as ‘longbread’, and is ‘mediumbread’ just regular bread? Google offers nothing but terrible jokes on the subject.

I’m not even going to spend time trying to segue from shortbread to Polynesia (the inspiration for the design)… this track jacket looks cool, there seems to be a lot of detail in the design, although the pics are a bit small (one of the few problems I have with the Big Cartel powered stores), the colourway works well, and there’s a bit of print on the collar too which is pretty unusual.

Here’s their blurb:

A superb collab between the infamous Z-Spot (of Strange Famous Records forum fame) and Zagadka- two Zâ€™s in full effect.

Z-Spot has hand illustrated a Polynesian inspired design which is printed atop a cloud of lime and cream. A removable green fabric covered button is yours to place wherever youâ€™d like!

Jacket is 100% cotton in a light weight french terry full zip up with cadet collar.

I think that this might be the first time that I’ve posted a track jacket that might actually be appropriate at the track… can you feel history being made?

I think that if I was to wear this in the UK, I would be labeled a chav, and with good reason too, I can imagine a British teen wearing this track jacket whilst sat at a bus stop slanging abuse at whoever walks past. But I’d like to think that in areas that aren’t teeming with loutish youths that wearing this jacket wouldn’t cause old people to immediately fear you, and instead allow you to enjoy it for what it is, a nice throw-back to classic Adidas styling without going to overboard with the retroness.

You know what’s cool about this track jacket? You’ve gotta look pretty damn close to tell that its made by one of the largest sportswear manufacturers in the world. I like that, I know that people stay away from companies like Nike and Adidas precisely because they don’t want to feel as if they’re being treated like a walking billboard, and its pieces like this that I find refreshing, of course, the fact it costs about double what I’d expect to find on an Adidas pricetag probably has something to do with the lack of branding, but its still refreshing.The cherry and gold colourway is pretty gorgeous, especially as it is set off by the little black pattern up around the shoulders and arms (which does include some teeny-tiny little Adidas logos).